Oh my. 💗😭💗😭💗😭😭 So good!

I am enlisting my Mom to be my stylist! I can't afford Stitch Fix prices, LOL. She sent me a birthday present today - two outfits - and they are perfect and only cost $75. I'm only 5 months postpartum and am still losing baby weight, and she is willing to shop for me for a few things each month so I can look presentable! Best part is she knows my style, she is about my size, and she's thrifty! I'm going to cover her lunch and gas and postage.

Is it a good field to pursue a degree in? Asking for myself, not dc. I have a BA, but I would like to be employable in the future (7-8 years from now) and I am interested in this. It sounds like a fascinating and rewarding job, and I'd love a job that directly helps people. If you know about this field, what pointers can you give me?

My sister in east central Florida just had a tornado take out trees in her backyard and damaged some of her porch. They said they can expect them all night. 😩

Does anyone have a good link for coverage of the hurricane? We don't have cable, and I would like to watch some "on-the-ground" updates, instead of only following the NHC.

There isn't many places to go with livestock, so they are staying to protect their animals. Flooding isn't an issue, but winds and tornado threats are. I'm hoping and praying for the best!

Well, it was more than a vacation - we were also visiting my family. It is really, really hard to leave them (grandparents, siblings, cousins) in Central Florida knowing a major hurricane is forecasted to come over them. It's scary. Carriede, so glad you have a place so your family can stay. Mine won't leave, they'll "be fine".

When we took a road trip to Disney World and a thug named Irma came and forced us to flee in the middle of the night? Along with 20 million other people? Gee, that was fun. Okay....your turn to remember!

Yikes. Where is he? We are on vacation in central Florida! Irma is hampering our plans.

We are driving to visit family. We began yesterday afternoon and immediately had an hour and a half traffic jam. Then further down the road, late at night, we were going to run into a line of severe weather with several tornados, so we stopped and spent the night to avoid them. Today our vehicle engine light came on, so with 3 hours left until our destination we are delayed in a service station. It's fun with 4 kids and a dog! Hopefully, after this is fixed, we will arrive tonight without too much fussing from the baby. (Hopefully the issue is fixed!) To pass the time, what are some of your road trip stories?

The Homeschool Gathering Place in Raleigh, NC.

Thanks for the feedback. We will look at Math U See. Other musings.... I bought Math Mammoth awhile back, thinking it would help with the conceptual math concepts. Neither of my students like the formatting. And I tend to agree with them - the pages are very busy. We also have Life of Fred Apples - Mineshaft. I had planned on working through those this year, but I'm not sure if that is 'enough' just by itself? If anyone has ideas for using either of those programs and adapting them, I would appreciate it. I hate to change programs in something like math. I had another thread months ago about using different resources in math simultaneously. The idea appealed to me before we moved and dd was born. Now I think it would be better for our family to stick with one. We are also out of the house at co-op once a week, so we have 4 days of home instruction time. Anyone have luck with online tutoring services? We are going to ask around locally, but are still meeting people/making connections.

Oldest dd is stalling out with Saxon. She can do the work, but she just sits there and whittles away the hours. :toetap05: We are looking at switching her to another program. I honestly don't know which would be best, but she likes the examples of BJU. She said "I never thought about numbers that way before" after she read them. :svengo: She is at lesson 104 of Saxon 5/4. She wants to go into a program with a "6" on it, since she is 6th grade by age. How would the transition go to BJU? Has anyone done it? Are the programs comparable in scope by level? Sequence is off, I know. So if she is at 5/4, would she go into BJU 6? Is there a placement test for BJU? I've looked at the website, but didn't find one.

We go through the sentence together, discussing the vocab (sometimes finding it in the dictionary), labeling the parts of speech, and going over the flash cards if necessary. Then they copy the sentence on their own, and I check to make sure it's neat. We have doubled up when we need, but I try to keep it at one sentence.

I'm so sorry, Dust. I apologize if my recent post was hurtful by bringing up a subject that is so very sensitive. Hugs to all who have struggled or are struggling. I find I don't talk about my miscarriages because there isn't much to say. They were awful. And the tears are so quick to come.

Within a matter of minutes, dear mother inquired about my post-baby weight (what are you down to?), whether we will have more babies (I'm worried about your health!), and whether dh has scheduled a vasectomy (don't wait too long!). She also emphasized the importance of math, even if there is an eclipse. 🙄😖 My passive-aggressive side wants to tell her we want another baby because she is freaking out about it. She knows (we have discussed this before) that dh and I feel like our family is complete. We are visiting them in a week. Actually, I blame some of it on my grandma, who lives with them. She's 88, negative, and critical and that drags my mother down.

Dd 8 complains about copywork. Specifically, she says her eyes hurt, and that they are blurry and shake when she focuses back and forth; it lasts for just a little bit. She reads well, but sometimes skips small words. Her last regular optometry appointment was at age 6 - she wasn't picking up on reading and was complaining of headaches. She checked out fine then. No convergence issues or other things popped up. Should I investigate this further? Is it perhaps a growing pain?

Yes, I think is my mom's biggest fear - that something happens to me in the process. About once or twice a month she asks me, "You are really done, right?" Or "Has dh scheduled a 'snip-snip'?" I can't really decide if I'm done until the baby is 2, anyway, so I try to pacify her, just like I did with homeschooling. It's annoying, but she's so supportive of our family in so many ways, I just overlook it.

Ugh! So sorry that happens to you!! We have had so many more comments about our family size with the addition of the fourth. Somehow people feel more entitled to share their opinion when you get past three?? I don't get it! Yes, we had two girls then we "got our boy" and therefore we must be crazy to go past three. :huh:

Me neither. We've started, but it's been rocky. I still have so much moving in to do (we moved in July)!

I don't know anything about the fostering, but we own a set of wooden bunkbeds from Walmart - probably the same style as your link (color is different). They have held up very well through multiple moves and are sturdy. One suggestion that we followed was to put a piece of plywood over the bunkbed rails that the mattress sits on. It improved the weight limits of the beds. We have used them as separate beds and as a bunk.

I'm happy to report that we had a great week in Boston! I even drove around the city! (A little. And I was really frustrated.) :lol: Thank you for all the suggestions and advice! We took the Liberty Ride bus tour around Lexington/Concord, visited the Museum of Fine Arts (amazing!), drove to Plymouth, visited the Museum of Science (also amazing), and walked the Freedom Trail. It was tiring, but good! I hope we can go back to see everything that we missed.

Okay, so I vote one of you experienced Bostonians volunteers to play tour guide for us! ðŸ˜ðŸ‘ðŸ»

Watertown, I think. Thanks, I will look into the T again. We toured the ship via google maps. So sad that we can't go on it! Woohoo! I will definitely try it. Thanks! Thank you! Great to know! Nope, all kids must go! But we'll try the T out and if it's terrible, we won't do it again, I guess. Here's hoping that I don't lose anyone! :lol:

MEmama, The green line is undergoing construction the week we are there, so we would have to get off and load onto buses in several places, I think. Not sure I can manage getting off/on and off/on, etc. But I will definitely check out the distance from the College to the Gardens. My kids aren't used to walking, but it may work.